Roden, Donald

Professor Roden's work has focused mainly on the history of education in modern Japan, especially preparatory schools for the Imperial Universities. He is also interested in problems related to gender and culture in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan.

Selected Publications

Schooldays in Imperial Japan: A Study in the Culture of a Student Elite (University of California, 1980)

“Baseball and the Quest for National Dignity in Meiji Japan,” AHR (June 1980)

“Taisho Culture and the Problem of Gender Ambivalence” in Thomas Rimer, ed, Culture and Identity (Princeton University Press, 1990)

“Thoughts on the Early Meiji Gentleman” in Barbara Molony and Kathleen Uno, eds., Gendering Modern Japanese History (Harvard, 2005).

Courses Offered

508:352 Japan’s Rise to World Power

508:450 Society and Culture in Japan

506:112 Patterns in Civilization: Love (with Rudolph Bell)

506:113 Patterns in Civilization: Death (with Rudolph Bell)

506:401 History Seminar: Gender and Culture in Japan

WGS Statement on Academia and Free Speech Rights

It is inherent to the discipline of Women's Studies to deal with complex subjects through theoretical lenses, which question conventional knowledge production. This department, one of the most distinguished departments of WGS in the country, has a highly visible faculty of national and international reputation invited to speak in various fora on sometimes highly controversial subjects. Such faculty members, as scholars, have not only a right, but also an obligation to produce and disseminate knowledge within and beyond the academy. Moreover, as private citizens, our faculty continue to enjoy the same freedoms of speech and expression as any private citizen and in accordance with university policy the department supports their protection from institutional discipline in the exercise of these academic and free speech rights.